Ken Jennings Hits Back After Fan Backlash for Filming New Season of 'Jeopardy!'
Ken Jennings is facing a fresh round of backlash for filming new episodes of Jeopardy! during the ongoing writers' strike, and now he's defending himself.
The host's comment comes in response to an irate fan on Twitter, who called him a "disgrace" for crossing picket lines by continuing to produce episodes of the popular game show while the Writers Guild of America approaches its fourth month of striking.
"Alex would NEVER do anything of the sort," the tweet continued, referring to the beloved late former host Alex Trebek. "He would turn over [in] his grave seeing you act like that."
— Ken Jennings (@KenJennings) August 13, 2023
What the user apparently didn't know was that Trebek did, in fact, do exactly as Jennings is now, filming episodes during the strike of '07-'08—and Jennings wasn't subtle in pointing that out.
He replied to the post directly with a simple screenshot of a statement issued on behalf of the show last month, after the Tournament of Champions for the most recent season was postponed.
In order to continue airing first-run episodes, the show went "into a holding pattern of sorts," pushing back the postseason for the 39th season and producing episodes using the "best of our WGA written material"—in other words, recycled content from seasons past.
In the screenshot from Jennings, the statement continued, “Jeopardy! has a long history with and tremendous respect for the WGA and our writers. We have always been careful to honor our WGA agreements and we would never air game material not created by WGA writers. However, just as we did, led by Alex Trebek, during the 2007-2008 strike, we will deliver first-run episodes again this fall to more than 200 affiliate stations nationwide." Rather than commenting directly, Jennings simply highlighted the sentence about Trebek.
The host was also called out by the WGA earlier this week when he apparently snuck into the studio on the first day of filming to avoid coming face-to-face with the show's writers who were boycotting outside.
Still, plenty of other fans came to his defense.
"Ken Jennings schools Jones for 1000 please!" one wrote on Twitter, referencing the original critic's username, Ryan Jones.
"Dude I have a million sympathies for WGA, but if you are going to take a shot at Ken using Alex Trebek, how do you not do your research?" asked another.
"Waiting for your apology to Ken it would be a disgrace if you don't," someone else commented.
No word back from the user thus far.
Next: 'Jeopardy!' Fans Furiously Call Out Ken Jennings for Questionable Ruling